Revelation 1:4-6 – John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

THEME OF THE DAY. WALKING IN CHRIST’S FREEDOM. The salvation of God given to the repenting and believing sinner is expressed in many ways. Here are three; “deliverance from sin”, “rescue from sin’s penalty”, and “release from sin’s bondage”. Another one appears in today’s scripture – “freed us from our sins.” When we think of being freed from our sins and enabled to walk with Christ in this freedom, a couple of things need to be remembered. These are found in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

First, our freedom in Christ is not to be abused, neglected, or presumed upon. The Apostle writes, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). God has freed us from our sins in order to fight against sin. Notice what Paul says in the middle of the verse – “stand firm therefore”. This is a spiritual posture of warfare. Do we know what we have to do to fall into a life of presuming upon grace; a life of spiritual indifference, and a “going through the motions” Christianity? Nothing. Do nothing. Just stop fighting against sin; let life and all its busyness and distractions remove us from the Word and prayer to know Christ and we will quickly fall back into the slavery of sin. Oh, it won’t have dominion over us, but it will get a hold of us and remove the joy, delight and pleasure of walking in Christ’s freedom.

The next truth about walking in Christ’s freedom comes further down in the same chapter of Galatians. We read, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). Paul’s statement is critical to our understanding of salvation. God calls us to freedom in His Son not only to deliver us from our sin and sins, but to set us free from ourselves. Salvation is not only about forgiveness but it is about dying to self. Remember what the Lord Jesus said of His followers and of Himself as He walked upon the earth, “It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28). Salvation is not only the forgiveness of sin and the work of God reconciling us to Himself. It is also a call to death to self. Salvation never produces a self-serving life; that is what the unsaved life is all about. Salvation always produces a self-denying life; a self-denying life that learns to put the interests of Christ and others ahead of self-interests. When the Bible says, ‘Christ freed us from our sins and set us free’, it is a freedom to serve not be served.

So, are we walking in the freedom Christ has bought for us and bestowed upon us? To do so begins with understanding what salvation has done beyond giving us forgiveness and a right standing with God. And this understanding is that we are freed from our worst spiritual enemy – ourselves, and enabled to die to self and live for Him and others which is the greatest experience of freedom we will ever know this side of heaven.

PRAYER: “Father, impress upon my heart that my salvation is not to be self-serving but to make me self-denying.”

QUOTE: “Salvation is to not only free us from our sins but to free us from being selfish. We are saved to serve, not be served.”